From Classroom to Career: MAGDJ Student Connects Development Training to Job at Local Nonprofit
Two years ago, MAGDJ alumni Mandee Campos was sitting in class with Professor Leroy Barber when a guest presenter from Lahash International gave a presentation on Asset Based Community Development (ABCD), a type of development that highlights the strengths found in every community. That presentation sparked an interest for Mandee, who saw an amazing connection between her own development values — which she’d been cultivating during her time in the MAGDJ program — and Lahash’s mission. This compelled her to reach out for an informational interview right away.
Lahash is a Christian nonprofit organization that partners with grassroots initiatives in East Africa that serve children vulnerable from poverty, HIV/AIDS, and war. Through their partnerships, Lahash hopes kids’ needs can be ministered to in an empowering and holistic way that focuses on mutual partnerships with local leadership in the communities.
Today, Mandee serves as Director of the Servant Teams Program. Servant Teams is a 10-month gap year experience that empowers young adults of diverse backgrounds through biblical discipleship and an experiential and academic learning environment. Through a Christ-centered community, participants learn about engaging in missions from both a local and global context.
“I really love that professors in the MAGDJ program constantly bring in representatives from various nonprofit and community engagement organizations,” says Mandee. “As I continue developing the Servant Teams program curriculum, I get to include many things I learned from my time in the MAGDJ program. When we enter ministry or work with a relational-oriented mindset, we realize relationships are a two-way thing — instead of seeing everything and everyone as a project. Every person and every community has value and a story before we even enter into the picture, and we miss out on that big time when we don’t engage with an openness to learn from one another.”
Check out more of Mandee’s story on our MAGDJ Alumni Profiles page!
This post was written by MU Blog contributor Dana Pair, Global Studies|MAGDJ Admin. Assistant at Multnomah University. Dana is also a student in Multnomah’s MAGDJ program.
March 21, 2018 | News
